The ALA Youth Media Awards will be announced this morning! There will also be a live webcast available. If you can’t be there in person and are not able to join the webcast, you can still follow results in real-time by logging on to the ALA Youth Media Awards Facebook page, or via Twitter by following hashtag #ALAyma. The program begins at 8:00 am PT. This is always a highlight of the Midwinter Conference for many, many children’s librarians. I can almost hear Seattle buzzing with discussions of favorite children’s books as librarians prepare to attend the announcements of the awards. The announcements are less than two hours away! Time to grab a quick breakfast and head to the Convention Center.

Whew! What a busy, wonderful day. I didn’t have any luck using WordPress from my iPhone, so I tweeted instead:#alamw13 really excited about tonight’s panel of authors at the Seattle Public Library. Thank you, Random House! #alamw13 Advice from Newbery authors: turn off the Internet while you’re working. #alamw13 Christopher Paul Curtis says it’s okay to use the Internet while you’re working if you need scalping instructions. #alamw13 The panelists are discussing Johnny Tremain. Bart Simpson called it Johnny Got Maimed. #alamw13 I just realized that I’m older than a few of these authors. #alamw13 Clare Vanderpool is a huge Willa Cather fan. That makes sense. #alamw13 Jennifer L. Holm matched her outfit to her book covers. Great shade of sea blue. #alamw13 Jerry Spinelli is kinda cute. #alamw13 Rebecca Stead is wearing red cowboy boots. Absolutely fabulous. #alamw13 A boy told Clare Vanderpool “your book made me cry.” It…

I’m usually not a morning person, but today I was up and running by 6:00 a.m. (It helps that my body is still on Eastern Standard Time.) The day started with a 6:30 a.m. meeting of the Pura Belpré Celebracií³n committee. Good food and good company. I highly recommend that you join REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. It’s a great cause and the dues are only $30 a year. The recipients of the Pura Belpré Award will be announced tomorrow morning. I can hardly wait! Next it was off to the Library Service to Population Children and Their Caregivers Committee. After a year of corresponding by email, it was so great to meet everyone in person. We will soon be announcing the winner of the ALSC/Candlewick Press “Light the Way” Grant. Stay tuned!

This morning was the ALSC All Committee Meeting, at which time I sat in on the meeting of the School-Age Programs and Services Committee. I can talk about programming until the end of time, and I wanted to see firsthand what these committee members were brainstorming. The members of the committee are focusing on professional trends and timely issues in determining their upcoming projects. The four major areas of discussion were: 1) the Caldecott 75th Anniversary; 2) STEM/Core Curriculum; 3) school/public library collaborations; and 4) inclusive/autism programming. The committee members shared a lot of examples of what their libraries are doing in these areas, and I look forward to seeing what resources they develop in the coming months. In the meantime, chime in with details and descriptions of school-age programs that you do in these areas. What programs have your kids loved? Share in the comments, and let’s get a…

Forget name badge ribbons–the Caldecott 75th Anniversary button is the hot bling here at Midwinter! It’s so exciting to see the fabulous logo created by 2008 Caldecott Medal Winner Brian Selznick in its fancy new swag format. The buttons are a great visual poll of who has joined the 2012-2013 celebration. Want to learn more? Check out the Caldecott 75th Anniversary website. And along those lines, I met with the 75th Anniversary Task Force this morning and fantastic things are in store for the final months of the celebration. If you think the new button is snazzy, wait until you hear what is in store for the banquet at ALA Annual 2013 in Chicago. There will be red carpet events both online and in person–did someone say formal attire and signature cocktail?

At the all-committee meeting today I met with other members of my virtual Children and Technology committee, the digital content task force and various other children’s librarians, professors and ALSC board members. We talked about books that have been made into apps (Captain Underpants!), app trailers, the dearth of children’s books in Overdrive and 3M, future research topics for ALSC, and Caldecotts in the digital age.